"Over the past three years I've noticed I'm getting more and more WA brown mud crabs (aka red rambos) in my pots in Shoal Bay. On Wednesday out of my five pots I got four crabs, 1 bluey (now called green by Fisheries) and three browns. But the frustrating thing was that even though the male browns had far bigger claws than the big female bluey they were about 1-2mm under size using the bluey measurement.

"But I see on my Strike Zone measuring device that the WA crab is stated as legal at 1200mm ... that made my three crabs legal ... hhhhhmmm!!!!!So I rang Fisheries regarding the issue. Can you believe I'm told that even though Fisheries are well aware that the WA crab has migrated (or increased in numbers) into Darwin waters recently, is a smaller crab and are contemplating the ramifications, I am the first person to raise this issue. The fact I've done that means it has to be addressed because there are legal implications as well. They admit the browns have arrived very quickly, I first noticed one in my pots only three years ago.

"But already there is an problematic implication ... the greens are mating with the browns and are producing a hybrid ... oh dear."

I caught one bluey at 15 cm, and about 7 rambos yesty at Dundee land based and all except 2 of the rambos were 12cm and obviously went back. And yes agreed numbers are on the up...Also all the rambos had bigger claws than the 15cm bluey haha

_________________“The solution to any problem –work, love, money, whatever –is to go fishing, and the worse the problem, the longer the trip should be.” –John Gierach

The rambos seem to be more aggressive, and also seem more relatively mature when they have a smaller carapace size. Maybe throwing them back at 12cm is part of the reason for their population boom?Also, I have never caught a female red Rambo looking crab. What do the females look like?

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